Ranks of Star Command

by **Mod** Tue Nov 08, 2011 9:18 pm

Your wish has been granted, Steel! As promised, I made a topic on the ranks of Star Command.

So this topic is about the ranks of Star Command. So...what do you think makes a Cadet or Veteran? We all know that Buzz is a Captain, the Corporal is..well, a corporal, and Commander Nebula is the head of Star Command. But how do you think their rank is symbolized? By the symbols on the Space Rangers' suits?
It could be so, since the symbol on Commander Nebula's chest has not only wings and a spaceship, but also a ring around the circle, in the shape of Saturn.

Now we have Space Rangers who have only the wings and spaceship emblem.

And now...those without the spaceship emblem! They could be considered Cadets or Rookies. However, it is possible that some of them, like Ty, are veterans but their ranks are low.

Ty is a veteran yet he he does not have a space ship on his emblem.

We know he's a cadet, due to Commander Nebula calling him by rank.

He calls himself a Space Cadet in his debut episode.

He is a Corporal (obviously), so it's a very low rank for him.

Petra is currently attending the Space Ranger Academy, so it's logical she starts out with wings.

Plasma Boy is currently attending the Academy, so...yeah, same as above.

Whew! Man, That was a lot of work. But anyway, so the point of me posting these pictures is to give you all the chance to figure out how the rank works. How do the Rangers achieve their ranks via their emblems?

From what we've seen, it's safe to assume that there are very low ranks in which a person has only wings, but no spaceship or Saturn symbols, very high ranks have the spaceship, and the Commander's position is the highest of them all-with the Saturn symbol and all.

by **Olivus Prime** Wed Nov 09, 2011 9:46 am

You beat me to it, Fox, and may I say congrats on finding all of the Rangers and categorising them!

In my opinion, Ty's spaceship-less emblem, which features spiked wings, shows him as being below Ranger rank, but with a rank higher than Cadet. He has quite an important role on Canis Lunis, so perhaps this could explain it somehow (e.g. he could be of "Guardian" rank or something).

The characters of "Ranger" rank do look a lot more mature than many of the "Cadets". There are exceptions, though, like the Ranger below Buzz.

by **Mod** Wed Nov 09, 2011 9:28 pm

Olivus Prime wrote:You beat me to it, Fox, and may I say congrats on finding all of the Rangers and categorising them!

In my opinion, Ty's spaceship-less emblem, which features spiked wings, shows him as being below Ranger rank, but with a rank higher than Cadet. He has quite an important role on Canis Lunis, so perhaps this could explain it somehow (e.g. he could be of "Guardian" rank or something).

The characters of "Ranger" rank do look a lot more mature than many of the "Cadets". There are exceptions, though, like the Ranger below Buzz.

Heh heh, thanks!

About Ty's rank...himm...that could work...we need to organize a certain rank for these guys!

That's true; they do look older than a lot of the "Cadets". I thought I was the only one who noticed that! It makes you wonder how old these people are.

by **Mira Nova** Wed Nov 09, 2011 10:23 pm

I have to admit....that is quite a list...wow....the pic of Ty makes me laugh though XDD

by **Mod** Wed Nov 09, 2011 10:51 pm

Heh heh heh...Me too! xD

Ty: -_-... Why, because I'm not a happy ball of sunshine like you?
Me: No, it's because you are a fun victim for me to pick on! Don't forget, you're my favorite character in the show! Razz

Ty:

Of course. How could I forget?

by **Alexa** Wed Nov 23, 2011 4:13 pm

Most information used for the following come from the following link: http://www.militaryfactory.com/ranks/index.asp

I have my own questions about this, let me tell you... I reviewed a basic list of ranks between the different forms of military for the United States, so I'm wondering which ranking list it's comparable to.

My main issue, right now, would be Commander Nebula. I looked through my lists of the four branches of military (Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy) and Coast Guard, and the only ones that use Commanders are Navy and Coast Guard. In these cases it's O-5, meaning that there are still outranked by Captains and the various Admirals.

Corporal is used with Marines and Army, both at E-4. They are, to put it simply, ranked higher than Privates (lowest ranks) but lower than Sergeants.

Cadet is used as a term for people who are training to become part of the military. So, Fop Dopler, being a "Space Cadet" is still training to join Star Command.

I get the feeling that the writers for the show grabbed random titles to use for the different ranks and then didn't bother to flesh it out any more than that. So, we'd have to make up our own ranking system, right?

Starting with the top: Since it's called Star Command, I suppose that makes sense why Commander Nebula is the leader. So, let's say Commander is the highest rank one can be in Star Command (comparable to being General/Admiral of the *insert branch of military here*).

Skipping to the lowest, Cadet is probably the term for those that are still in the Academy. Cadet Flarn was still learning when we first saw him... And did Fop Doppler actually "graduate" and become an actual ranger in that episode? I can't quite remember. After being a cadet, once you continue on to Star Command, I suppose that is when you become an actual Ranger. In this sense, Ranger is the name of your position, not your rank. Compare, becoming a soldier after being a cadet (or whatever other term in place of soldier you want to use).

Rookie, likewise, is most likely a term used for people who are new to being a Space Ranger, not as an actual rank.

Corporal is clearly one of the lower ranks, but we don't know how low. Is it what you graduate to after being a Cadet?

Wasn't there a Sergeant in at least one episode? My memory is fuzzy, but I vaguely remember there being at least a mention of a Sergeant. If there was, then Sergeant would have to be the next rank above Corporal. Unless it was a different rank and I heard wrong. Even so, it would likely be above Corporal.

You know what I forgot to mention in detail? Captains. Captains are O-3 in the Marines, Air Force, and Army. I said earlier that Captains are higher rank than Commanders, but let's assume that the writers from the show didn't know what they were talking about for Military rankings. If we took the Captain title form the Army and compared it to the Commander title from the Navy, then Captain is the lower rank, but very close. This is most likely why Buzz is so high ranking, yet still below Nebula.

What do we have so far...?

Cadet (not an actual rank, perhaps?)
Corporal
(Sergeant?)
Captain
Commander

Were any other ranks ever mentioned in the show? If not, we can probably flesh out what character had what rank from this short list.

by **Mod** Wed Nov 23, 2011 4:32 pm

ab103 wrote:Most information used for the following come from the following link: http://www.militaryfactory.com/ranks/index.asp

I have my own questions about this, let me tell you... I reviewed a basic list of ranks between the different forms of military for the United States, so I'm wondering which ranking list it's comparable to.

My main issue, right now, would be Commander Nebula. I looked through my lists of the four branches of military (Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy) and Coast Guard, and the only ones that use Commanders are Navy and Coast Guard. In these cases it's O-5, meaning that there are still outranked by Captains and the various Admirals.

Corporal is used with Marines and Army, both at E-4. They are, to put it simply, ranked higher than Privates (lowest ranks) but lower than Sergeants.

Cadet is used as a term for people who are training to become part of the military. So, Fop Dopler, being a "Space Cadet" is still training to join Star Command.

I get the feeling that the writers for the show grabbed random titles to use for the different ranks and then didn't bother to flesh it out any more than that. So, we'd have to make up our own ranking system, right?

Starting with the top: Since it's called Star Command, I suppose that makes sense why Commander Nebula is the leader. So, let's say Commander is the highest rank one can be in Star Command (comparable to being General/Admiral of the *insert branch of military here*).

Skipping to the lowest, Cadet is probably the term for those that are still in the Academy. Cadet Flarn was still learning when we first saw him... And did Fop Doppler actually "graduate" and become an actual ranger in that episode? I can't quite remember. After being a cadet, once you continue on to Star Command, I suppose that is when you become an actual Ranger. In this sense, Ranger is the name of your position, not your rank. Compare, becoming a soldier after being a cadet (or whatever other term in place of soldier you want to use).

Rookie, likewise, is most likely a term used for people who are new to being a Space Ranger, not as an actual rank.

Corporal is clearly one of the lower ranks, but we don't know how low. Is it what you graduate to after being a Cadet?

Wasn't there a Sergeant in at least one episode? My memory is fuzzy, but I vaguely remember there being at least a mention of a Sergeant. If there was, then Sergeant would have to be the next rank above Corporal. Unless it was a different rank and I heard wrong. Even so, it would likely be above Corporal.

You know what I forgot to mention in detail? Captains. Captains are O-3 in the Marines, Air Force, and Army. I said earlier that Captains are higher rank than Commanders, but let's assume that the writers from the show didn't know what they were talking about for Military rankings. If we took the Captain title form the Army and compared it to the Commander title from the Navy, then Captain is the lower rank, but very close. This is most likely why Buzz is so high ranking, yet still below Nebula.

What do we have so far...?

Cadet (not an actual rank, perhaps?)
Corporal
(Sergeant?)
Captain
Commander

Were any other ranks ever mentioned in the show? If not, we can probably flesh out what character had what rank from this short list.

Wow! That's a long list of ranks you pulled here, my friend. But well done all the same! You sure did your homework. Anyway, we could use this, and the US police ranks I'm about to pull up...hold on...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_ranks_of_the_United_States

I know; not the best source of information, but it does seem more or less accurate. Anyway, in the police ranks, the Commander is the fourth highest of the ranks, the Captain is about three ranks beneath them, and the Corporal is the lowest of the ranks.

We could find a way to combine the military and police ranks, since Star Command seems to be a combination of those two armed forces, anyway. Any ideas on how we should rank these Rangers?

by **Pythonmelon** Wed Nov 23, 2011 4:38 pm

this came up in another conversation, but I want to mention that if your working with army ranks, Ty appears to fall in a category like Private First Class. What do you guys think?

by **Alexa** Wed Nov 23, 2011 4:40 pm

Well... Commander Nebula is obvious.

Buzz and everyone with a similar insignia to him are most likely Captains.

I want to say that Ty, with his spiked wings, is a rank lower than Captain, but above Corporal (possibly that Sergeant rank I can't get out of my head). It can be any rank that's between these two.

And, everyone with the simple insignia are either Corporals or still in the academy (therefore, Cadets).

EDIT: Basically, the way it works is, the fancier the design, the higher the rank.

by **Mod** Wed Nov 23, 2011 4:54 pm

ab103 wrote:Well... Commander Nebula is obvious.

Buzz and everyone with a similar insignia to him are most likely Captains.

I want to say that Ty, with his spiked wings, is a rank lower than Captain, but above Corporal (possibly that Sergeant rank I can't get out of my head). It can be any rank that's between these two.

And, everyone with the simple insignia are either Corporals or still in the academy (therefore, Cadets).

EDIT: Basically, the way it works is, the fancier the design, the higher the rank.

Hey, Ty COULD be a Sergeant for all we know. He may as well be one.

I'm not sure ALL of the Rangers with the spaceships on their emblems are Captains. I mean, they may be of high rank, but I don't think that necessarily means they are Captains. Take the blue-haired women in the Space Ranger Collage, C2, for example.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f48/16/78/14/11/th/space_11.jpg

She does have a spaceship, but she's not a Captain. Her Captain is the Asian dude in D3. But he doesn't have spaceship on his emblem...

I do agree with the emblem design to an extent; the higher the rank, the fancier the emblem.

Everyone who doesn't have one is either a Cadet, Corporal, or something different all together.

by **Pythonmelon** Wed Nov 23, 2011 4:59 pm

very true.. i like the ty as a sergeant thing too, because of his importance on Canis Lunas

by **Mod** Wed Nov 23, 2011 5:09 pm

Yeah, and even though he's not a Cadet, he did have a low rank, hence his guarding Canis Lunis for hours on end and not necessarily fighting evil.

by **Alexa** Wed Nov 23, 2011 5:49 pm

Fox Storm wrote:

I'm not sure ALL of the Rangers with the spaceships on their emblems are Captains. I mean, they may be of high rank, but I don't think that necessarily means they are Captains. Take the blue-haired women in the Space Ranger Collage, C2, for example.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f48/16/78/14/11/th/space_11.jpg

She does have a spaceship, but she's not a Captain. Her Captain is the Asian dude in D3. But he doesn't have spaceship on his emblem...

Then... Lieutenant. Glancing through the lists again, that's the only one that places between Sergeant (which I'm quite amused with the idea that Ty is one) and Captain in a majority of the lists (meaning, the corresponding ranks, not the actual ranks depending on what chart you're looking at.) If Cadets and Corporals have the same insignia, then it's likely that Lieutenant and Captains have the same one as well.

by **Mod** Wed Nov 23, 2011 5:55 pm

Hmm...a Lieutenant...that could work for her. And yes, I'm starting to now believe Ty is a Sergeant.

Lieutenants and Captains having the same emblem?...That could work!

Okay, I was a bit confused about what ranks we were talking about-corresponding ranks vs. actual ranks, I mean.

by **Alexa** Wed Nov 23, 2011 6:14 pm

Fox Storm wrote: Okay, I was a bit confused about what ranks we were talking about-corresponding ranks vs. actual ranks, I mean.

Ah, that was just a product of my awkward way of explaining things to myself. Let me try and make it clearer...

In the different branches of military, there are different ranking systems. As I said earlier, only Navy and Coast Guard use Commander, which is one example of a difference. When I said actual rank, I meant what the rank would be inside each individual branch, e.g. Captain being a higher rank than Commander in the Navy (which is clearly not true for BLoSC).

But, military ranking has another way to refer to it. They use a letter/number system. The lowest rank is called E-1 (through E-9) and then it goes to W's (up to W-5) and finally O's with O-10 being the highest rank in most occasions. This is what I meant by corresponding ranks, because Commander in Navy (O-5) corresponds with, let's say Lieutenant Colonel of the Air Force (likewise, O-5).

by **Mod** Wed Nov 23, 2011 6:18 pm

Okay, that makes sense. Hmm...I wonder if Star Command has something like that. I mean, they don't say anything about it, but still.

Hmm...so what would the other ranks be in the letter/number system?

by **Alexa** Wed Nov 23, 2011 6:26 pm

Well, other than what we're coming up with, I doubt Star Command has that detailed of a ranking system. After all, they seem to be the sole military/police force, so they don't need to make it too detailed.

What are the other ranks in the US Military? Just go here: http://www.militaryfactory.com/ranks/index.asp for that. Click on any branch you like and the column down the left side tells you the letter/number each rank next to it is. It's too long for me to be bothered copying down each individual one. XD

by **Mod** Wed Nov 23, 2011 6:35 pm

That's true. I guess we'll just come up with what we discussed here and see what everyone else thinks.

Wow...that is quite an interesting site! That's a lot of letters and numbers!

by **Alexa** Mon Dec 05, 2011 12:16 pm

Alright, so this is a summary of what we determined so far.

Commander:
The Highest rank. Held by the leader of Star Command: Commander Nebula. Insignia has Saturn ring plus a spaceship.

Captain and Lieutenant:
Second and third highest rank, respectively. Known Captains are Buzz. Rangers at these two ranks have a spaceship on their insignia.

Sergeant:
Possible Sergeants include Ty Parsec. Rangers at this level have spiked wings on their insignia.

Corporal:
Lowest rank for Rangers. Possible Corporals include Mira, Booster, and XR. Corporals have the basic, simple insignias.

Ranger refers to anyone who is currently in Star Command. Rookie is a term used to refer to newbie rangers.

Cadets are people who are still in the Academy, training to be Rangers and have the same insignia as Corporals. Known cadets are Cadet Flarn (though he might be a Ranger now), Fop Doppler, and, presumably, Petra and Plasma Boy.

by **Olivus Prime** Mon Dec 05, 2011 2:21 pm

Those designations seem pretty solid. They sound pretty professional (I'm used to calling them Rangers, Rookies, Captains and Commander), but that's the great thing about them - Space Rangers are the peacekeepers of the galaxy, so they should bear hard-hitting, authoritive ranks.

Sergeant Ty Parsec has a good ring to it!

by **Steel** Fri Mar 23, 2012 8:32 pm

My goodness, I did not reply to this topic? No wonder I couldn't remember what my opinion was... *revives thread*

I do have something to point out before we begin.

Fox Storm wrote:

These three Rangers are confirmed Captains.
--The first, Rocket Crockett, is Captain of Star Cruiser 22 ("The Starthought").
--The second is Captain of Star Cruiser 19 ("Downloaded").
--The third, Tundra, is Captain of Star Cruiser 36 ("Sunquake").

Therefore, in the case of the latter two, I cannot say for sure that their emblems are true representations of their positions, like I see Fox Storm mentioned in a latter post when comparing the unnamed second captain and his co-pilot, who clearly has a more stylised emblem (I like the idea of her being a Lieutenant like you guys are suggesting).

And I am also reading ab103's post and nodding with most of what she's saying, but would like to add my further two cents to it. Star Command is a para-military organisation. It's very militaristic, but it oddly works more like a police force than a military force, like Fox Storm said.

A long while back, EEZ and I came up with this rank system:
--Cadet (confirmed, in-training)
--Rookie (confirmed, first-year Rangers)
--Corporal (confirmed, possibly lowest officer rank)
--Sergeant
--Lieutenant
--Captain (confirmed, leader of a personal four-person team)
--Major
--Colonel
--Commander (confirmed, leader of Star Command)

I don't remember if Sergeant was ever mentioned, but my memory is also sometimes faulty. If I ever catch it again, I'll write down what episode it was from.

I do very much like the idea of Ty being a Sergeant. I don't know if they would allow Sergeants enough leverage and responsibility to look over a secret government moon base like Ty did, but given he had such a position, he should surely hold some sort of rank which is nevertheless lower than Captain.

I also like ab103's summing up of the ranks since I can't figure out how Majors and Colonels would fit when Buzz seems to almost be Nebula's second-in-command and he's only a Captain, but I will disagree on Mira, Booster and XR being Corporals. That would imply they have some prestige, and their only real prestige at the moment is being part of Buzz Lightyear's team. So I will agree that Rookies, while not being a real rank, is nevertheless the proper term to refer to newbie Rangers. And Rangers is yes, the standard term for all, well... Rangers! And I agree with the Cadets thing.

I wish the animators weren't so inconsistent. :I

by **Mod** Fri Mar 23, 2012 8:57 pm

I don't think Sergeant was ever mentioned, Steel. That was something we came up with for Ty, since he's definitely not a Captain, but he's not a Rookie, either. Plus, he has the spiked wings as his emblem, which is different from a Captain's emblem or a Rookie's emblem. I think he'd be somewhere in between.

by **Steel** Sat Mar 24, 2012 9:00 am

I still rather like it for Ty, to be honest. Smile

And I like the idea of advanced co-pilots being Lieutenants, as well. Navigators and whatever XR is can also have such similar ranks. I think I seem to remember EEZ giving her (she called her Thornhoof) the rank of Lieutenant. Because frankly, a lot of the Space Rangers we see in the training session in "The Adventure Begins" are just... background material when a good portion of them are in fact advanced Space Rangers. We just don't know it yet.

I was about to go and check out the "Wirewolf" episode again before I did realise you were right. Ty's emblem has spiked wings for some reason. So, Corporals and Sergeants could have spiked wings. Of a sort.

So I would say yes, let's definitely go for using their emblems as an indication of rank--but up to a point. I would say for Rangers like Tundra and the second unnamed Captain, we should "pretend" their emblems are stylised like Buzz's for the sake of consistency. (At least consistency in fanfiction or fanart.)

You know what, I'm going to try to get my Photoshop working again so I can work on a proper way to stylise these emblems based on rank! *perfect way to waste her Saturday*

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